Sixteen thousand police officers across the country are to undergo a two week election security training programme. The programe funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) is to get the officers acquainted with election policing and to ensure peace in the upcoming December elections. The training programme was announced at the Police Headquarters in Accra on Monday. The Director of DFID Danny Graymore said the training programme will go a long way to upgrade the knowledge of the security personnel in “election laws, public order and prevention of election related violence.” There will also be the improvement in the National Communications Infrastructure to facilitate radio communications across the country for intelligence gathering by the police, he added. The programme is set to begin next week in Accra with a similar programme to be held in the Ashanti Region in June. He said with sub-region dogged with many election related violence, Ghana, with its security agencies, must ensure “they have the right skills, the right equipments that they are in the right place and they make the right decisions about risks and act crucially, that they can change deployments when new risks emerge, they can change the steps they are taking to help manage the process and a successful election,” he said. Joy News’ Anny Osabutey who was present at the conference said the police administration was extremely excited about training programme. The Deputy Inspector General of Police Mohammed Alhassan said he is particularly happy because the programme will involve practical activities. He said the Ghana Police Service is determined to follow best practice all over the world, adding the training programme will go a long way to help the personnel in their preparation towards the December elections.